This season has been a roller coaster of ups and downs, but at the end of the regular season, the boys found themselves at the top of the MIAC standings. This team has fought through a lot of adversity this season to accomplish the first of our three goals. We start a quest to accomplish the second of the three goals when the MIAC Playoffs begin at 1 p.m. this Saturday at the National Hockey Center.
This past weekend we managed to get the sweep down in Winona against Saint Mary’s. The first game was not as dramatic as the second game, but there were similarities in both games. Friday night, SMU scored the first goal of the game in the second period to take a 1-0 lead going into the third. We managed to take the momentum back in the game with an early third period goal by freshman Jack Johnson. We followed that up with two more goals by another freshman, Auggie Moore, to take the 3-1 win.
On Saturday night, there was a lot more drama and stress. We went into the game knowing that a win would get us the MIAC regular-season title since Augsburg lost the night before. This was a great feeling, but also added some stress to the situation. With that said, SMU came out with nothing to lose and gained a 2-0 lead after the first period. We didn’t play great, but we also were not bad in the first period. We just couldn’t get the puck to go in and they found a way to get a couple to go. The second period didn’t start much different with SMU taking a 3-0 lead 7 minutes into the period. We managed to score a goal to make it 3-1, but they answered right back to make it 4-1. We had played just over half the game and were down by three goals. SMU then got a little undisciplined and took some penalties that we took advantage of and made the game 4-3 after two periods. This is where the similarities come from the night before as we once again were down by one goal going into the third period. The similarities continued with Johnson scoring early to take the momentum and tie the game 4-4 early in the third period. We finally got two more goals by freshman Danny Wieber and Moore to get a 6-5 win and the MIAC regular season championship. This was a crazy game and a crazy way to win the first sole championship in my 12 years as coach at SJU, but this team wouldn’t have it any other way.
A special mention needs to be made for the weekend that our freshman line of Wieber, Johnson and Moore accounted for 16 points, 6 of the 9 goals scored on the weekend. Moore was also awarded the player of the week award in the MIAC with 3 goals, 4 assists and 7 total points. This also spring-boarded him to our leading scorer and one of the top scorers in the MIAC.
What a great weekend and now we need to focus on the next goal of winning the MIAC playoffs. The first game will be played this Saturday at 1p.m. at the National Hockey Center. We will play the winner of the Thursday game between St. Thomas and Gustavus. Either way, it will be a huge challenge as the parity in MIAC hockey in unlike any other sport. We look forward to the challenge and we hope to see you at the game!
Go Johnnies.
